Download RECONSTRUCTION

RECONSTRUCTION
Overview of principal Reconstruction proposals and plans:
-- 1864-65: Lincoln’s 10% plan
-- 1865: 13th Amendment
-- 1865-66: Johnson’s version of Lincoln’s proposal
-- 1866-67: Congressional plan: 10% plan with 14th Amendment
-- 1867-77: Military Reconstruction (Congress): 14th Amendment plus black
suffrage later established nationwide by 15th Amendment.
-- Compromise of 1876: ends Reconstruction
I. Context Setter: Four main questions vis-à-vis the post-Civil War South:
1. Rebuilding the South after its destruction and the emancipation of slavery
2. The condition of African Americans in the South
3. How would the South be reintegrated into the Union?
4. Who would control process of Reconstruction: Southern states, president,
or Congress?
II. What should be done with the leaders of the Confederacy?
A. Jefferson Davis imprisoned for two years (others as well); eventually
released.
B. President Johnson pardoned all rebel leaders in December 1868.
C. Congress did not remove many civil disabilities until 30 years later.
III. 13th Amendment (Ratified in December, 1865)
A. Effective when 3/4 of states ratified it; had passed with required 2/3 vote
in Congress.
B. Slavery abolished: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as
punishment or crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall
exist within the U.S. or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
C. "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate
legislation.
IV. Rebuilding the South
A. Richmond, Charleston, and Atlanta were destroyed
B. Economically the South lay in ruins
1. Banks ruined by runaway inflation
2. Factories were closed or destroyed
3. Transportation system was devastated.
C. Agriculture
1. Cotton fields now fields of weeds
2. Livestock gone after northern invasion
3. 1860-size crop not until 1870; much from new Southwest
D. Planter aristocrats devastated
1. Value in slaves disappeared
2. Many mansions destroyed or ruined
V. African Americans in the immediate post-Civil War South
A. Freedmen’s Bureau (created in 1865 by Congress)
1. Headed by Gen. Oliver O. Howard (later founded and served as
president of Howard University in Washington D.C.)
-- Members included many Northerners including former abolitionists
who risked their lives to help the freedmen in the South; one of several
northern groups called "carpetbaggers" by white southern Democrats.
2. Purpose: To help unskilled, uneducated, poverty-stricken ex-slaves to
survive
3. Provided food, clothing, medicine & education to ex-slaves and poor
whites
a. Taught about 200,000 blacks how to read; many eager to read the
Bible
b. Negotiated labor agreements between freedmen and planters.
4. Authorized to provide "40 acres and a mule" from confiscated or
abandoned land to black settlers.
a. In certain areas, the Bureau distributed no land.
b. Sometimes collaborated with planters in expelling blacks from
towns and forcing them to sign labor contracts to work for their former
masters.
5. Southern violence against "carpetbaggers" and blacks pronounced.
a. Anyone aiding African American rights in the South during
Reconstruction risked being a victim of violence.
b. In Louisiana in summer and fall of 1868, white Democrats killed
1,081 people most of whom were either black or white Republicans.
6. Bureau expired in 1872
-- Johnson had tried to kill it repeatedly as he was a white-supremacist
along with most white Southerners
VI. Presidential Reconstruction
A. Andrew Johnson
1. Champion of poor whites against planter aristocrats as a politician in
TN.
-- Yet, owned a few slaves.
2. Refused to secede with Tennessee in April of 1861 and remained in
the Senate.
-- Served as military governor of TN when Union armies re-conquered
the state.
3. Lincoln’s vice presidential. Candidate for the Union party in 1864
-- Seen as attractive to War Democrats and other pro-Southern groups
4. Champion of states’ rights and the Constitution
B. Presidential Reconstruction
1. 1863, Lincoln gave his "10 percent" Reconstruction plan
a. 10% of ex-Confederate states’ voters in 1860 election had to make a
pledge of allegiance to the U.S. and abide by emancipation to be reintegrated
into the Union.
b. Next step would be creation of a state gov’t which Lincoln would
then recognize.
c. Congressional Republicans sharply rejected the 10% plan claiming
it was much too lenient and did not safeguard Union gains.
-- Fear of planter aristocracy regaining power and possible
re-enslavement of African Americans.
2. Wade-Davis Bill (1864)
a. Passed by Republicans required 50% of state’s voters in 1860
election to take oath of allegiance and demanded stronger safeguards for
emancipation than Lincoln for re-entering the Union.
i. States then would have a Constitutional convention that would
require approval by Federal gov’t
-- "Iron-clad Oath": "Never voluntarily aided the Confederacy"
ii. "State suicide theory" --Claimed Confederate states had forfeited
all their rights by seceding from the Union; "committed suicide" as Repub.
states.
iii. States should be readmitted only as "conquered provinces"
subject to the conditions and wishes of Congress.
b. Lincoln "pocket vetoed" bill by refusing to sign it after Congress
had adjourned.
c. In response, Republicans refused to seat delegates from Louisiana
after it had met the requirements of Lincoln’s 10% plan in 1864.
3. Two congressional factions emerged among Republicans
a. Majority moderate group agreed with Lincoln that the Confederate
states should be reintegrated ASAP but on Congress’ terms, not Lincoln’s.
b. Minority radical group wanted South’s social structure uprooted, the
planters punished, and blacks protected before states were restored.
4. Johnson recognized several of Lincoln’s 10% governments while
Congress was not in session.
a. Johnson agreed with Lincoln that states had never legally been
outside the Union
b. May 29, 1865, issued his own Reconstruction proclamation.
i. Disenfranchised certain leading Confederates including those with
more than $20,000 in taxable property.
-- Yet, granted many pardons for ex-Confederates
ii. Called for special state conventions required to repeal ordinances
of secession, repudiate all Confederate debts, and ratify the 13th
Amendment.
-- He reluctantly agreed to include 13th Amendment as a
condition
c. Pardons of planter aristocrats soon gave many of them the power to
control the organization of their states in 2nd half of 1865
d. Republicans were outraged that planter elite once again controlled
many areas of the South.
VII. Black Codes
A. Designed to regulate affairs of emancipated blacks (as the slave statutes
did pre-Civil War.)
1. Purpose: Guarantee stable labor supply now that blacks were
emancipated.
a. Severe penalties on blacks that "jumped" their labor contracts that
committed them to work for the same employer for a year at very low wages.
b. Violators could be made to forfeit back wages or forcibly made to
work by a paid "Negro catcher."
2. Purpose: Restore pre-emancipation system of race relations (to furthest
extent possible)
a. Freedom recognized and marital rights granted but few other rights
given
b. Forbade blacks to serve on juries or testify against whites.
c. Some forbade blacks from renting or leasing land.
d. Blacks not allowed to vote
e. "Vagrancy" -- "Idle" blacks could be sentenced to work on a chain
gang.
B. Forced many blacks to become sharecroppers (tenant farmers).
1. Result: Many blacks sank to level of pseudo-indentured servants
where generations remained on one plot of land, indebted to the plantation
owner.
2. Many in the North angered
VIII. Congressional Reconstruction
A. Many ex-Confederates became part of state congressional
representatives.
1. Angry Republicans did not allow Democrats in on first day of
congressional session on Dec. 4, 1865.
a. Feared loss of political advantage that had yielded Homestead Act,
Morrill Tariff, and the Pacific Railroad Act.
i. Blacks now worth one person for representation
ii. Black population would increase southern representation and
presidential electoral votes by 12.
b. Feared southerners might win control of Congress by uniting with
northern Democrats, perhaps even the presidency.
i. Black codes could then be implemented at federal level or even
re-enslavement of blacks.
ii. Also concerned about re-routing of federal railroad, rescinding of
Homestead Act, and possible repudiation of national debt.
B. Johnson clashes with Congress
1. On Dec. 6, 1865, Johnson declared that the ex-Confederate states had
met his conditions
and that the Union was now officially restored; Republicans outraged
2. February, 1866, vetoed extension of Freedmen’s Bureau; bill later repassed.
3. In response, Congress passed the Civil Rights Bill in March, 1866.
a. Gave blacks citizenship and aimed to destroy the Black Codes.
b. Johnson vetoed it but Congress overturned his veto in April.
c. From then on, Congress frequently overturned Johnson’s vetoes and
assumed effective control on the gov’t.
C. 14th Amendment (Approved by Congress and sent to states in June
1866)
1. Purpose: Republicans sought to place principles of Civil Rights Bill
into a constitutional amendment as protection against a future southern
takeover of Congress and subsequent removal of Civil Rights Bill with simple
majority.
2. Provisions:
a. Gave civil rights inc. citizenship (but not inc. voting rights) to
blacks.
b. Reduced proportionately the representation of a state in Congress
and in the Electoral College if it denied blacks voting rights.
c. Disqualified from federal and state office former Confederates who
had once held office and had sworn to "support the Constitution of
the United States."
d. Guaranteed the federal debt while repudiating all Confederate debts.
e. Congress given power to enforce the amendment.
3. Johnson instructed Southern states to reject it
-- All Southern states except TN rejected it putting it in temporary
limbo.
4. Republicans won 2/3 majority in House & Senate in Congressional
elections of 1866
a. Significance: Republicans now had control of Reconstruction
policy.
i. Radicals led in the Senate by Charles Sumner
ii. Radicals led in House by Thaddeus Stevens from PA.
b. Radical Republicans
-- Sought to keep out Southern states from the Union as long as
possible & use federal power to effectuate drastic social & economic change
in the South.
c. Moderate Republicans (consisted of the majority)
-- Preferred policies that kept states from infringing on citizens’
rights rather than direct federal intervention in peoples’ lives.
D. Military Reconstruction (see Bailey p. 469 for map)
1. Military Reconstruction Act (March, 2, 1867)
a. South divided into five military districts, each commanded by a
Union general and policed by the Union army (about 20,000 total)
b. Disenfranchised 10s of 1000s of former Confederates.
c. Congress also required seceded states to ratify the 14th Amendment
before being allowed back into the Union.
d. States had to guarantee in their state constitutions full suffrage for
blacks
-- Paved the way for easy ratification of the 15th Amendment
2. Stopped short of giving freedmen land or education at federal expense
a. Military rule ended by 1868 in all but three Southern states
b. Did not want to make federal gov’t directly responsible for
protection of black rights
c. Short-sighted policy led to a century of institutional discrimination
against blacks.
3. Fifteenth Amendment (Passed by Congress in 1869; Ratified in 1870
during Grant’s presidency)
a. Purposes:
i. To ensure state guarantees of suffrage would not be rescinded if
southerners came to dominate Congress in the future.
ii. To strengthen Republican control of southern states
b. Provisions: Suffrage for black males
c. Loopholes
i. Said nothing about holding office
ii. Voting requirements not uniform throughout the country.
iii. Poll taxes, literacy tests, and property requirements not
addressed
-- Literacy tests administered unfairly to favor illiterate whites.
iv. "grandfather clauses" aimed to reduce number of black voters
-- Required citizenship prior to 14th Amendment
v. Gerrymandering (especially in Virginia)
vi. Intimidation
-- Lynchings in 1892 (230) all-time high followed by 1884 (211).
vii. Women were excluded
-- Female leaders of the abolitionist movement split from the
males.
viii. Poor whites also disenfranchised
d. Result:
i. Democratic dominance in the South assured due to circumvention
of 14th and 15th Amendments.
-- Many southern Republican voters denied suffrage.
ii. Full suffrage for blacks not realized until 1965.
4. Civil Rights Act of 1875
a. Crime for any individual to deny full and equal use of public
conveyances and public
places e.g. hotels, trains, railroads, theaters, and restaurants.
b. Prohibited discrimination in jury selection
c. Shortcoming: Lacked a strong enforcement mechanism
d. Dismayed northerners didn’t attempt another civil rights act for 90
years!
5. The end of reconstruction
a. By 1870, all former Confederate states had reorganized their state
govt’s and reintegrated into the Union, having adopted the 14th and 15th
Amendments.
i. Once state govt’s ("radical regimes") seemed on solid footing in
the South, Union forces were removed.
ii. By 1876, whites again dominated southern politics
b. Northerners now became concerned with other moral issues rather
than helping the freedmen.
c. Panic of 1873-1879 focused politics on economic issues
d. Compromise of 1877
i. Election between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Dem.
Sam Tilden inconclusive.
-- Tilden led pop. vote and 184-165 in electoral college; 187 votes
needed to win.
-- Fraud and violence in SC, FL, and LA and questions of voter
eligibility in OR left 20 electoral votes in question.
-- 15 member commission eventually gave Hayes all 20 votes but
Democrats filibustered.
ii. Compromise: North was allowed to have Hayes as president
while last remaining federal troops to be removed from SC Fl & LA
6. Military Reconstruction meant Presidential powers had been usurped
by Congress and a martial regime had been established.
a. Supreme Court had ruled in case Ex parte Milligan (1866) that
military tribunals could not try civilians if civil courts nearby.
b. Since desperate times call for desperate measures, the Court
avoided confronting Congress about its imposition of martial law.
c. During subsequent Gilded Age presidents will be weak and
faceless while Congress will dominate.
IX. Radical Reconstruction in the South
A. Suffrage policy somewhat hypocritical on the part of the North.
1. Lincoln and Johnson both had suggested gradual suffrage for certain
blacks who qualified for it through education, property ownership, or military
service.
2. In fact, most northern states denied suffrage to blacks until 15th
Amendment
B. African American suffrage saw temporary gains
1. Blacks made up the majority of voters in AL, FL, LA, MI, and SC but
only in SC did they make up majority in the lower house.
2. No senate had a black majority nor were there any black governors
during the period coined by white southerners as "black reconstruction."
3. Nevertheless, many black representatives served with distinction;
some well-educated.
-- Two black senators from MI: Hiram R. Revels and Blanche K.
Bruce.
C. Corruption in state legislatures
1. "Scalawags" (term coined by white Southern Democrats)
a. Southern men, formerly Unionists and Whigs, who supported
Reconstruction.
b. Hated by former Confederates who exaggerated their corruption and
plundering of Southern treasuries through their political influence.
2. "Carpetbaggers"
a. Mainly Northern Republicans who supposedly had packed all their
possessions into a single carpet-bag suitcase and came to the South to seek
their fortune.
b. Consisted of Union soldiers, teachers, and businessmen who arrived
in the South before 1867.
-- Reaped benefits during military reconstruction
c. Resented by the white south as federal interference; significant
violence occurred.
D. Positives from Reconstruction
1. Steps taken to est. adequate public schools
2. Tax systems were improved
3. Public works projects were launched esp. in transpiration
4. Property rights for women guaranteed.
5. Apportionment made more equal in state legislatures
6. Property requirements eliminated for holding office
X. Rise of the Ku Klux Klan
A. Essentially a rebellion against "radical’ rule; in effect, terror wing of
Democratic party.
1. Goal: Overthrow Reconstruction governments in the South and replace
them with white supremacy oriented Democratic government.
2. Many whites resented success and efficacy of black legislators as they
did the alleged corruption of Carpetbaggers and Scalawags.
3. KKK, the "Invisible Empire of the South," founded in TN in 1866
4. Consisted of whites from all classes in the South
B. Used terrorism while clad in white sheets to intimidate blacks and
Carpetbaggers.
1. Flogging, mutilation, or murder common against black and white
Republicans.
2. Became effective in many areas for discouraging blacks from attaining
their rights.
C. Succeeded in decimating Republican organization in many localities.
-- In response, new southern governments looked to Washington for
survival.
D. Force Acts of 1870 and 1871 (also called Enforcement Acts) -- 1871 law
also called
"KKK Act"
1. Federal troops were sent to quell the KKK’s intimidation while
terrorist groups were outlawed.
-- Significance: 1st time federal gov’t protected individuals, not local
authorities
2. Moderately successful in destroying the KKK yet much KKK
intimidation had already had an effect.
3. By 1872, Klan no longer a major political force in the South.
4. Yet, acts repealed by Democrats over 20 years later
XI. Johnson is impeached
A. Radical Republicans, rather than curbing his authority, wanted him
removed altogether.
B. Congress passed the Tenure of Office Act in 1867 over Johnson’s veto.
1. Required the president to secure the consent of the Senate before he
could remove his appointees once they had been approved by the Senate.
2. Purposes:
a. Keep Sec. of War Edwin Stanton in the cabinet who was secretly
serving as a spy for the radicals.
b. Provoke Johnson into breaking the law thus laying the foundation
for impeachment.
C. Johnson, believing the act unconstitutional and depending on support
from the Court, fired Stanton in early 1868 to initiate the court case that the
Court would supposedly decide in his favor.
-- Johnson did not believe the law applied to Lincoln’s holdovers.
D. In response, House voted 126 to 47 to impeach Johnson for "high crimes
and misdemeanors," as called for in the Constitution.
-- Main issue was Johnson’s violation of the Tenure of Office Act.
E. Case tried in the Senate between March 5 and May 26 with the House
prosecuting
1. May 16, 1868, Radicals failed to remove Johnson by one vote (2/3
needed).
2. Seven Republicans voted "not guilty"
F. Outcome probably beneficial for the country
-- Johnson’s removal may have set a destructive precedent, severely
weakening the executive branch.
XII. Rise of the Solid South
A. White supremacist Solid South dominated by Democrats in each state.
1. Remaining Republican govt’s in South collapsed
2. Republican party dead in South for about 100 years.
3. Southern resentment and humiliation would last generations.
4. Beginning increased violence and discrimination toward blacks
B. Redeemers: coalition of prewar Democrats, Union Whigs,
1. Confederate army veterans, and individuals interested in industrial
development.
-- Rise of many ex-plantation owners (sometimes called "Bourbons")
2. Sought to undo changes brought about by the Civil War
3. Committed to strict economic & political control of blacks and reduce
scope of state gov’t.
4. Won many local elections in 1870s vowing to dismantle the "corrupt"
Reconstruction system.
5. Policies affected blacks and poor whites alike
-- Exacerbated class strife and racial violence that followed the Civil
War.
XIII. Purchase of Alaska (1867)
A. Russia overextended in North America; realized another war with
Britain would probably mean British takeover of Alaska.
-- Fur supply exhausted; Alaska a financial liability
B. Russia preferred U.S. since they wanted a stronger U.S. to thwart
Britain, Russia’s ancient enemy.
C. Sec. of State Seward signed treaty w/ Russia to purchase Alaska for $7.2
million, an area approx. 600,000 square miles.
1. Many criticized him for purchasing what seemed to be a wasteland:
"Seward’s Folly," "Seward’s Icebox," "Frigidia," "Walrussia"
-- U.S. in midst of Reconstruction: antiexpansionist; economic matters
more important.
2. Gov’t felt obligated not to shun Russia’s offer since Russia had been
very friendly to the North during the Civil War.
-- In addition, area rumored to be abundant in furs, fish and gold.
D. Alaska was to become a major source of oil for U.S. and a sizable
fishery.
XIV Post-Reconstruction Civil Rights: Road to institutional discrimination
A. Reconstruction failed to empower blacks politically
-- The white South openly disregarded the 14th & 15th Amendments
for several generations.
B. Sharecropping became a wide-scale practice keeping blacks tied to
plantation owners w/ crop lien laws, which facilitated the binding of blacks
unable to pay their debts.
C. Slaughterhouse Cases, 1873 (still during Reconstruction)
1. 14th Amendment protected against federal infringements of abridged
"privileges and immunities," not state infringements.
-- Thus, in effect the states were able to discriminate against their
citizens.
2. Molded interpretation of 14th Amendment for decades.
D. Civil Rights Cases, 1883
1. Court claimed 14th Amendment protected individuals from state
action, not individual action.
-- Overturned Civil Rights Act of 1875 which protected individuals in
states.
2. Significance: a discouraged Congress didn’t pass another Civil Rights
law until 1957.
E. Wholesale disenfranchisement began in 1890 -- achieved by
intimidation, fraud, and trickery.
1. Poll taxes & property requirements; literacy tests admin. unfairly to
favor illiterate whites.
2. "grandfather clauses" aimed to reduce number of black voters while
enfranchising white voters who did not meet #1 & #2
-- Required citizenship prior to establishment of 14th Amendment
3. Gerrymandering
4. "Jim Crow" laws in 1890s (beginning in 1881) intended to segregate
blacks in public facilities: e.g., public schools, railroad cars, restaurants
F. Lynchings as a form of intimidation
1. During 1890s, 200 blacks were lynched per year; 4/5 in the South.
2. Lynchings in 1892 (230) all-time high followed by 1884 (211).
3. Lynch law and mob rule competed with justice in many areas.
4. Ida B. Wells-Barnett: Black journalist who launched an international
anti-lynching movement whose goal was a federal anti-lynching law.
G. Booker T. Washington and education for African Americans
a. 44% of non-whites illiterate in 1900; most from the South.
b. Became head of the black normal and industrial school at Tuskegee,
AL in 1881
-- Taught useful trades as a means toward self-respect and economic
equality, rather than a classical, education.
-- Started with only 40 students who literally built the school.
c. Advocated policy of accommodation in which he grudgingly accepted
segregation in return for the right to develop economic and educational
resources of the black community.
i. Urged blacks to adopt white middle-class standards in speech, dress,
and habits so blacks would gain respect of whites.
ii. Established in the "Atlanta Compromise", 1895 (paves way for
Plessey v. Ferguson)
d. Ironically, Washington labored secretly against Jim Crow laws and
racial violence, writing letters in code names and protecting blacks from lynch
mobs.
-- His efforts, however, were little known in his time.
H. Plessey v. Ferguson (1896) capped the failure of Reconstruction by
making it constitutional to segregate the black and white races: "Separate but
equal"
1. Court ruled that separation was legal so long as facilities were equal.
2. This ruling henceforth applied to schools and other public places.
3. Remained intact until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954:
I. W.E.B. DuBois opposed Washington and demanded immediate social
and economic equality for blacks.
1. His opposition to Washington as well as other blacks led to the
formation of the Niagara Movement (1905-1909)
a. Demanded immediate end to segregation and to discrimination in
the unions, courts, and public facilities.
b. Demanded equality of economic and educational opportunity.
c. Laid the groundwork for creation of the NAACP.
2. DuBois demanded that the "talented tenth" of the black community be
given full and immediate access to the mainstream of American life.
J. NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
1. After Springfield Race Riots in 1909, a group of white progressives
inc. Jane Addams, John Dewey, William Dean Howells, and editor Oswald
Garrison Villard formed the NAACP (1910)
2. Adopted many of the goals of the Niagara movement
3. DuBois as director of publicity and research, and editor of their
journal, Crisis
4. Goal: attainment of equal rights for blacks through the use of lawsuits
in federal courts.
5. Opposed political and economic subordination of blacks for promoting
the leadership of a trained, black elite.